Week 24: Growing Minds at Work in Kindergarten

Dear Family,

We hope you all had an amazing week. As for us, we truly had a blast! With our children’s growing curiosity and love for learning, our days were filled with meaningful discussions, exploration, and building ideas together. Let’s take a closer look at each session and explore the wonderful learning moments we shared throughout Week 24!

Large Group

Our large group time was fun, informative, and full of energy, just as our children love it. We began each day by sharing stories from our weekends and then moved into our familiar large group routines, which help set a calm and connected tone for the day. This week, our main focus was building words for our literacy alphabet word wall. Working in groups, our children formed a variety of vocabulary words for each letter of the alphabet. Each day, we took the learning a step further; first forming words orally, then practicing how to write them on the board.

We have seen wonderful progress in their confidence, teamwork, and love for learning.


“I went to Koba and I had cake. I also take sugar home and made pancake with it” -Solomon

“I go Senbet temertbet(Sunday School) with Liyat and I bought chocolate icecream for them. And then Yesterday there was denkuan(Tent) at Summit and I was so tired” -Leul

“Yeah we also pass by here so we saw our school when we come back from senbet temrtbet(Sunday School)” -Liyat

“Last time, I went with my mom to the cake shop and there was a person giving me and my mom a cake and my mom changed her cake” -Kian

“I went to my grandma’s house and I played and watched tablet” -Yadon

“Betselot and Yemariam are wearing the same Jacket” -Samuel

Literacy

Our literacy sessions this week were creative and full of excitement. For our first session, we took it outside and invited our children to choose two letters from the alphabet. They practiced writing their letters and then decorated them freely using beads, lava stones, pompoms, seeds, sticks, pipe cleaners, buttons, and glitter. Each child created their own unique letter masterpiece, and we laid them out to dry together outside. For our second session, we brought the learning back into the classroom and focused on word building. Our children traced circle shapes using tape, carefully snipped them out with scissors, and wrote their chosen words on each piece. This activity was not only fun and engaging, but it also helped strengthen fine motor skills, letter recognition, and word formation. Creating word circles will now become part of our daily routine as we continue forming as many words as possible for each letter of the alphabet as we move forward.


“P is for so many things like pillow, plain, and peninsula” -Kian

“I want to have L and T so it will be for me and my dads name” -Liyat

“But Liyat my name is also same like you. You know Leul Tesfaye and Liyat Tesfaye it’s LY and LY but it’s okay I’ll choose F and K” -Leul

“Wait is Samuel and I are also going to fight over S? No Nai took S already so we both don’t have our names” -Solomon

“E is for egg and elephant” -Yemariam

“A, apple” -Betselot

Math

Math class was all about time this week! We dove headfirst into "Time," "Time Telling," and the wonderful world of the "Analog Clock”. We started by getting hands on with the clock, identifying the hour hand (the short one!) and having our children practice telling time just by looking at the numbers. They were so engaged, which we are always happy to see! Next, we tackled minutes, learning clever counting methods. The best part? They got to practice using a real clock, twisting and turning the hands to see how minutes tick by. It was a fantastic teaching opportunity, especially when we related it all to their daily routines and discussed timely activities!


“I have a watch clock at home I mean my dad has it in America, not me” -Solomon

“I know what time it is now, it’s 2” -Kian

“The short one is so funny” -Yadon

“Also slow, the short one is slow” -Samuel

“This is 1 it’s 1 clock now” -Yemariam

“You say o’clock Yemariam not clock cause this is the clock” -Liyat

Science

Yay! It was finally project time in science! This week, we began our highly anticipated science projects inspired by the landforms we have been exploring and learning about. During our first session, we gathered on the mat to discuss and choose which landforms we wanted to turn into 3D projects. Each child selected their favorite landform and began planning how they wanted to build it and what materials they might use. In our second session, our children brought their ideas to life on paper. They drew detailed blueprints of their projects and colored them exactly how they imagined them. It was wonderful to see how expressive and thoughtful they were as they explained their plans and designs.

“I want to make a mountain so high it touches the clouds!" -Solomon

“We need a volcano in the middle because it’s the best one" -Samuel

“We can use real sand for the desert" -Yadon

“I want to make Peninsula cause it’s easy” -Liyat

“Phi, can I please make island? Because that’s my favorite” -Kian

“Me and Betselot volcano okay” -Yemariam

“Me I want flat” -Ismael (referring to plain)

Art

Continuing our canvas practice this week, we completed the sketching, tracing, and painting of our continents; from North America all the way to Antarctica. Our children took turns adding the final touches to our practice canvas as preparation for painting the real canvas next week. While taking turns at the canvas, our children were also busy at the tables working on a second art project. They created half face portraits by pasting a photo of half of their face onto white paper and completing the other half using their imagination and artistic skills. This activity connected beautifully with the self portrait practice we’ve been building on throughout our art sessions. Our art room was full of creativity, concentration, and confidence as our children managed two art projects at once expressing themselves in different ways and growing as young artists with every stroke.



“Look! I got my favorite colors, orange and blue” -Yadon

“Phi, Samuel and mine same” -Yemariam

“Me too, I didn’t write I only draw” -Ismael

“I am practicing to draw a T-Rex now you know why because I can draw myself very well” -Leul

“This is looking like Earth already, but if we paint it all green it will look like grass” -Kian

“This is Africa. I paint Africa” -Samuel

“Are they all the same size? Do we need to sketch them all the same?” -Solomon

“Antarctica” -Betselot

Next week’s schedule:

Monday – Math, Literacy

Tuesday – Literacy, Science

Wednesday -Library, Math

Thursday - Science, Music

Friday - Library

Specials:

Monday- Art

Tuesday - Gym

Thursday - Ethiopian center/ clay

Reminders and notes:

• Please make sure that our children are wearing suitable clothes on Monday as we have art class and activities get messy sometimes.


• Every Wednesday and Friday is library day. Our children will be bringing home a book of their choice in their library folder, so please make sure to read the book with them over the weekend. Please return the folder the following Wednesday so they can get a new one.


• Every Tuesday, we have gymnastics, so please ensure that our children come dressed in comfortable and loose-fitting sports attire to facilitate their exercise.


• Every Wednesday and Friday, we have football, so please make sure our children wear their football jerseys if they have them, or any comfortable shorts.




Can’t wait to continue building, creating, and exploring together next week!